


Agent Coulson is down

by SonglordsBug



Series: Darcy Stark [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Meta, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark doesn't know how to deal with Phil's death, so it's not exactly a surprise, the major character death is phil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 08:59:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17179943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonglordsBug/pseuds/SonglordsBug
Summary: Meta about Tony from my Darcy Stark verse during the scene with Steve after Phil dies.





	Agent Coulson is down

**Author's Note:**

> crossposting from stumblr

I love the scene between Tony and Steve just after they find out Phil has died. With Steve calling Phil a good man and Tony calling him an idiot. With Steve asking if it's the first time he's lost a soldier and Tony declaring they're not soldiers. I thought the characterization was interesting and the end when Tony realizes where Loki is is hilarious. But often when I watch the scene all I can think of is Tinker from my Darcy Stark verse.

Tinker, who is not having a good day. I mean, just before this he almost got squished by the engine he was restarting, ouch. And before that he was fighting with Captain America, which would have brought up all sorts of childhood trauma involving Howard, and even involving Peggy. Howard compared Tony to Cap and chose to look for Cap over spending time with Tony. But Peggy is the one who told the comforting stories about Steve. In their fight, Tony was faced with his father’s Cap, not Aunt Peggy’s Steve, and that had to be crushing.

And now, now Phil’s dead. He just found out that Pip is dead. This is his hero. Pip’s hero was Captain America. But while Tinker and Bit both looked up to Cap, their hero is Pip. And Pip is dead. He died going up alone against someone who considered themself a god. And all he took with him was an experimental gun. And Tinker is mad. He has to be. (If he isn’t, all that’s left is fear and heartbreak.) How could Pip do this to him? And he’s going to have to tell Bit and Aunt Peggy.

So he’s caught up in all this and Captain America makes a comment about Pip seeming like a good man. And Tinker is mad, Pip wasn’t good, he was great, what does Cap know? And really, Pip was an idiot, he got himself killed, Tinker has to think that because oh how he hurts.

Then in the third panel Cap starts judging him again, at least that’s how Tinker sees it. And no, Pip’s not an idiot for believing, he always believed, in all sorts of people- he believed in Tinker. He’s an idiot because he’s dead and Tinker doesn’t know how to deal with that, because Pip shouldn’t have done it alone.

And he tries to explain that to Cap, but he trails off. Because after all, what he really should have done was not died, not left Tinker. Cap doesn’t know this, and tries to explain about no win situations, probably thinking about his own experiences with the train and the plane. But Tinker’s heard this before.

He grew up as one of three Cap admiring genius children. And they had more access to what actually happened than most people. There’s no way the three of them didn’t apply every ounce of their intellect to finding ways out of those situations. Tony doesn’t believe that sometimes there isn’t a way out, there’s always a way out, you just have to be smart enough, clever enough to spot it. This belief has, after all, gotten him to the point he’s at, Afghanistan, Stane, Vanko, palladium poisoning.

And then Cap calls Pip a soldier. And that’s not what he was- not to Tinker. Pip was his brother, his best friend, his protector, his guardian. (Rhodey is too of course, but Pip was first, Tinker’s emotionally able enough to understand that you can have more than one of these people.) Tinker isn’t mourning the soldier or the agent, he’s mourning his brother, and in the last panel you can see the heartache behind the anger.

Tinker has a mission for the rest of the movie: avenge his brother. Oh saving the planet is important, and Pip would be disappointed if he didn’t, but it’s bonus that he can get Loki by doing it. He has to avenge Pip and then he has to go find Bit and tell her. And it will be a stream of I’m sorry’s, and I should have been faster, and he was so stupid and so brave. Because there’s no way he doesn’t blame himself. If he’d only finished fixing the engine faster. Or maybe if he’d kept his mouth shut and not gotten into a fight with Captain America. If he’d figured out where Loki had Selvig building the portal faster.

Tinker in this scene is feeling so much, and trying as hard as he can to play it off, because no one knows. The only people who know about their relation are Bit, Peggy, and Rhodey. Pepper knows Tony has siblings, but doesn’t know she’s met either of them. Clint and Natasha know Phil has siblings, but not who they are. So now Tony is trying not to fall apart, trying to hide the heartbroken little brother, because no one would understand if he broke down, and it’s an ingrained habit to not explain these things.


End file.
